The Bruins were granted a day off today by head coach Claude Julien after winning both halves of back-to-back games, including one shootout.

That means no fine tuning of the team’s forecheck and breakouts, and also no auditions to participate in Boston’s next shootout. The Bruins typically practice shootouts once or twice a week, and Julien uses the results to help determine his shooters for the next time the Bruins are in a game that remains tied after 65 minutes of action.

Earlier this season, I suggested Julien lean more on past success rates when picking his shooters. In-game performance also influences many coaches, including Julien. Well, new statistical analysis by statistician Michael Schuckers, posted on the Empirical Sports blog, might prove that all the debating over which players should and shouldn’t be included in the shootout lineup is just a waste of energy. To sum it up, Schuckers’ research deems the shootout is a “crapshoot.”

Why would a few shooters rate as below-average while none is above-average? Imagine you and I are teammates in a coin-flipping contest, and we share the delusional belief that we have the skill to cause the coin to land on heads. Now, if I throw tails a few times in a row, our coach will probably bench me quickly. But if you toss a few heads, you’ll stay in the lineup. Of course, over time, you won’t be able to do much better than 50-50, because coin flips, like shootouts, are random. So in the long run, I’ll end up below-average, you’ll be average, and nobody will rate above-average.

So while skill is still very much involved in the shootout, there isn’t enough data to determine who the best shootout performers are. Just looking at the shootout numbers of feared goal-scorers like Alexander Ovechkin (13-for-47) and Marian Gaborik (2-for-18) hammers home the point that shootouts are as random as could be. No one is trading either of the aforementioned stars for Jussi Jokinen, who is the all-time shootout goals leader in the NHL.

Basically, the shootout is a ridiculously inexact science. It probably has no business being used to determine a pro sporting event, but I digress. In terms of picking the shooters, coaches and fans can weigh all the elements, but really the best route to go is just to play the hot hand and maybe mix in a different look now and then. If the Bruins start with a speedster like Tyler Seguin, following up with a change-of-pace player like David Krejci and then a slap shot from Zdeno Chara could put the odds more in Boston’s favor.

Or maybe the Bruins and other teams should just flip a coin to pick their shooters. It could lead to a similar success rate.

All that this proves is that even the league doesn’t think that this mini skills competition is a fair, or an overly conclusive, definitive way to rank teams at seasons end.

I think that we’d all agree that anything is better then ties, but I’d rather see a multiple OT sessions (4v4 for 5 minutes, 3v3 for 5 minutes, then if needed a shootout) then the current system. There are other ways, well I guess only one other way really, to decide games rather then putting the game on one players stick or pads, as we can’t have 5 hour games every night. Shootouts are what we have now, it is what it is, but in the future at least one extra 5 minute frame of 3 on 3 should be instituted. Or as you say, a different point awarding system, but all that is really doing is putting lipsitck on a pig. You’re still going to have detractors, like me, to the system.

I personally love the shootout, and feel it‘s getting a bad rap. It’s not like we see penalty shots more than once in a blue moon. Success in the hockey shootout takes considerably more skill than the soccer equivalent, where success boils down to whether the shooter can guess which direction the goalkeeper will dive.

I don’t want to go back to ties. The shootout gives teams an extra chance to win games that they fully deserve to win, but a bad bounce leaves them tied at the end of regulation.

I would favour a 3-2-1 system where a regulation win gets a team 3 points, but an overtime or shootout win only 2 points. Remember people, this season shootout wins don’t count in breaking ties at season’s end.